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SwitchMed and our Egyptian Switcher are featured in COP23 side event

How Youth Mediterranean initiatives are turning climate change into an opportunity? Thanks to SwitchMed, Up-Fuse, a brand that promotes eco-conscious lifestyle by designing and producing upcycled bags from discarded plastic waste, will be one of the featured initiatives in this COP23 side event “Engaging Youth in Climate Action in the Mediterranean”.

In response to the growing number of engaged youth organisations in the intergovernmental climate change process, the Secretariat of the UfM recognizes the key role that young people play in tackling climate change and supports youth-driven initiatives such as the Mediterranean Youth Climate Network (MYCN). Young people can shift the narrative and turn climate change into an opportunity for entrepreneurship and job creation through innovation in both shores of the Mediterranean.

“Engaging Youth in Climate Action in the Mediterranean” is a COP23 side event organized by The Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean Youth Climate Network. This side event will be the opportunity to highlight the role of youth in climate action in the Mediterranean region and to engage them from across the region in addressing the adverse effects of climate change and promoting innovative approaches to sustainable development.

Besides it is technical support, green entrepreneurship programme, and trainings in access to finance to green entrepreneurs and civil society organization around the Mediterranean, SwitchMed is providing its Switchers also with mingling and networking opportunities in high level confereces and international fairs.

Our Switcher Yara Yassine, co founder of UpFuse, a green start up based in Cairo that recycles waste into Global Lifestyle Brand has been invited to the meeting to share her success story with the audience on November 14 at 18:30-20:00 at Bonn Zone, EU Pavilion, Room Tallinn. In fact, only in 2015, Up-Fuse has up-cycled 36,000 plastic bags, preventing them from ending in landfills, and providing stable income to 7 underprivileged families. As Up-fuse is encouraging local communities to be part of it, it has trained six women and five young men from local NGOs to perform the upcycling process.

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Fundedby the European Union, the SwitchMed Programme is implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the UN Environment's Economy Division, the UN Environment Mediterranean Action Plan and its Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC). The initiative is carried out in close coordination with the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement (DG NEAR).